In many cases, a surge of requests for data from a large number of clients may overload a content server or servers, resulting in unacceptable server response time, and leading users to seek content elsewhere. This may be detrimental to electronic commerce. To encourage users to wait until the server can respond, it is frequently helpful to provide alternative information to the user. For example, an appliance may determine when a server is responding slowly to requests, and direct users to alternate content including estimates of when the server will become available.